Support lost

Brendan Nelson: Mister 9 percent.

I’ve never really understood these polls that come out only a handful of months after an election. The incoming (or incumbent) Government would usually still be riding the same kind of victory high they had at the election due to not really being there long enough to annoy everybody, and the Opposition usually needs the best part of 12 months to rebuild themselves to a proper alternative Government (if they get there at all).

So what these polls are really saying is “If an election were held at the weekend, we’d have the same result as we had 3 months ago.”

The electorate is fickle, but not that fickle.